Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Xenon-136 is an isotope of xenon that undergoes double beta decay to barium-136 with a very long half-life of 2.11 × 10 21 years, more than 10 orders of magnitude longer than the age of the universe ((13.799 ± 0.021) × 10 9 years). It is being used in the Enriched Xenon Observatory experiment to search for neutrinoless double beta decay.
The ratio of xenon-136 to xenon-135 (or its decay products) can give hints as to the power history of a given reactor and the absence of xenon-136 is a "fingerprint" for nuclear explosions, as xenon-135 is not produced directly but as a product of successive beta decays and thus it cannot absorb any neutrons in a nuclear explosion which occurs ...
As caesium 133, 135, and 137 are formed by the beta particle decay of the corresponding xenon isotopes, this causes the caesium to become physically separated from the bulk of the uranium oxide fuel. Because 135 Xe is a potent nuclear poison with the largest cross section for thermal neutron absorption, the buildup of 135 Xe in the fuel inside ...
Xenon-135 (135 Xe) is an unstable isotope of xenon with a half-life of about 9.2 hours. 135 Xe is a fission product of uranium and it is the most powerful known neutron-absorbing nuclear poison (2 million barns; [1] up to 3 million barns [1] under reactor conditions [2]), with a significant effect on nuclear reactor operation.
This page lists radioactive nuclides by their half-life.
Compared with solar xenon, Earth's atmospheric Xe is enriched in heavy isotopes by 3 to 4% per atomic mass unit (amu). [18] However, the total abundance of xenon gas is depleted by one order of magnitude relative to other noble gases. [15] The elemental depletion while relative enrichment in heavy isotopes is called the "Xenon paradox".
Xenon-135 in particular tremendously affects the operation of a nuclear reactor because it is the most powerful known neutron poison. The inability of a reactor to be restarted due to the buildup of xenon-135 (reaches a maximum after about 10 hours) is sometimes referred to as xenon precluded start-up .
The iodine pit, also called the iodine hole or xenon pit, is a temporary disabling of a nuclear reactor due to buildup of short-lived nuclear poisons in the reactor core. The main isotope responsible is 135 Xe, mainly produced by natural decay of 135 I. 135 I is a weak neutron absorber, while 135 Xe is the strongest known neutron absorber.